piter, and forms an ellipse, its two diameters being in the ratio of four to five. The interior of the ring is not dark, but slightly luminous. The hollow space is, however, of a very deep black in the beautiful perforated nebula of the southern hemisphere. All are probably star-clusters in form of rings.

Ten Thousand Eyes in One.

As incidental reference has been made to the telescope, it is appropriate that just here we should glance at this wonderful instrument. The first telescope made, Gallileo's feeble instrument, only magnified objects seven times, and yet with it he discovered the satellites of Jupiter. The first telescope which was constructed of large dimensions was that of Sir William Herschel. He discovered the sixth satellite of Saturn with it. The tube of this instrument being extremely heavy, movement could only be communicated by a very complicated mechanism; a mass of ladders and masts, forming a gigantic pyramid. Its length was nearly forty feet, its diameter nearly five. Euler maintained that in order to see the largest animals in the moon, it would be requisite to have a telescope several hundred feet in length. Hooke thought a glass 10,000 feet long (nearly two miles) would be necessary, and projected the construction of one. The telescope of Lord Rosse has shown that we can obtain this advantage much more easily. It is, says Sir David Brewster, one of our most marvelous combinations of art and science. This magnificent instrument is fixed in the midst of walls which resemble segments of fortifications. The telescope tube is 55 feet in length, and weighs 14,575 pounds avoirdupois. With it one can gauge the immeasurable depths of the heavens. It is thought that by means of this instrument we could easily perceive a monument the size of the pyramids of Egypt, if any existed on the moon. The surface of this planet is there as accurately depicted as a terrestial landscape

The telescope of Lord Rosse, would certainly not show us a lunar elephant, but a troop of animals like a herd of American buffaloes would be quite visible. Troops marching in order of battle would be clearly perceptible. The observatory at Paris and the capitol at Washington would be very easily seen. We must therefore conclude that if we see nothing of this kind on our satellite, it is because its surface, formerly all flame and volcano, and now all ice, did not or does not contain anything of the kind.

Sir John Herschel explored the stars with instruments which multiplied 6500 times. Lord Rosse fathomed the depths of the heavens with a telescope having a six feet opening, and fifty-five feet in length. Thus by

the potency of this immense optic tube, in which a man could walk with ease, we see several nebulæ, which up to the present time had defied all our instruments, resolved into dense swarms of stars. Our means of investigation have given gigantic proportions to the field of science. When the sidereal world was only explored with the naked eye, the catalogue of stars compiled from antiquity only made mention of about a thousand stars. In our days the vault of heaven, seen through a telescope twenty feet long, is found, according to Struve, to contain more than 20,000,000 stars.

But Sir William Herschel pried yet more deeply into the mysteries of the heavens. By means of his telescope, forty feet long, the milky way, this long white train which the Arabs called the Heavenly River, has

LORD ROSSE'S GREAT REFLECTING TELESCOPE.

been resolved into a stellar cloud, in which the English astronomer estimated there were 18,000,000 telescopic stars. And yet can we say that with these overwhelming numbers-these numbers which confound the imagination we have reached the extreme bounds of science, and that it has traced out the farthest limits of the sidereal universe? Probably not. Other revelations, not less marvelous, may yet astonish our descendants!

Not only do these distant systems, some of them peopled with myriads of suns, take the most varied forms, not only do they present a diversity of aspect greater than it is possible to imagine; but some of them also unfold to the astonished eye which contemplates them varied shades and real colors. One is of a beautiful indigo blue; another is rose-colored at its centre with a white border.

CHAPTER II.

REMARKABLE PHENOMENA IN THE SKY.

Strange Appearances in the Heavens-Fiery Bodies Sweeping Through the SkyStartling Explosions-An Aërolite Suspended in a Church-Fall of a Great Stone-A Brilliant Meteorite Seen in Connecticut-Balls of Fire Leaping and Whizzing in the Air-A Red Globe Apparently as Large as the Moon-A Shower of Burning Stones-The Great Meteor at Hurworth.

M

ETEORITES are those solid fiery bodies which from time to time visit the earth, sweeping through the sky with immense velocity in every direction, and remaining visible but a few moments; they are generally attended by a luminous train, and during their progress explosions usually occur, followed by the fall of stones, to which the name of aërolites is given.

In November, 1462, at Ensisheim, in Germany, a loud explosion was heard in the air, and a stone seen to fall which buried itself deep in the earth. It weighed 260 pounds, and by the order of the Emperor Maximilian, was suspended in the church at Ensisheim, where it remained until the French revolution. A portion of it is now in the Parisian museum, and another in the Imperial Cabinet at Vienna. In June, 1635, a fiery mass was seen passing over the Veronese territory with such. velocity, that the eye could scarcely follow its motions. Loud explosions were heard, and a large stone fell near the Benedictine Convent, about six miles from Verona.

At half past six o'clock, on the morning of the 14th of December, 1807, a meteorite was seen rushing from north to south, over Weston, in the State of Connecticut; its apparent diameter being equal to one-half, or two-thirds, that of the full moon. As it passed behind the clouds, it appeared like the sun through a mist, and shone with a mild and subdued light; but when it shot across the intervals of clear sky, the glowing body flashed and sparkled like a firebrand carried against the wind. Behind it streamed a pale, luminous train, tapering in form, and ten or twelve times as long as its diameter. The meteorite was visible for the space of half a minute, and just as it vanished gave three, distinct bounds. About thirty seconds after its disappearance, three heavy explosions were heard like the reports of a cannon, succeeded by a loud whizzing noise. Directly after the explosions, a person heard a sound resembling that occasioned

by the fall of a heavy body, and upon going from the house perceived a fresh hole in the turf, at the distance of twenty-five feet from the door. At the bottom of the hole, two feet below the surface, an aërolite was discovered which weighed nearly thirty-five pounds. Another mass, which was dashed to pieces upon a rock, was judged, from the fagments. collected, to have weighed two hundred pounds. Other aërolites fel in various parts of the town. The stones, at the time of their descent, were hot and crumbling, but gradually hardened up n exposure to the air.

At Futtypore, in India, in November, 1814, a meteorite was seen, shortly after sunset, shooting swiftly towards the north-west. It appeared as a blaze of light surrounding a red globe of the apparent size of the moon. As it proceeded on its course, loud explosions were heard, resembling the sound of distant artillery, and a stone fell, which, in its descent, emitted sparks like those proceeding from a blacksmith's forge. When first discovered, the aërolite was hot and exhaled a strong sulphurous smell. In December, 1836, just before midnight, a meteorite of extraordinary size and brilliancy was seen over the village of Macao, in Brazil, traversing a cloudless sky. It burst with a sharp, loud noise, and a shower of stones fell within a circle of thirty miles. The aërolites varied in weight from one pound to eighty, and descended with such force as to break through the roofs of houses, and bury themselves deep in the sand. These extraordinary bodies have been noticed from the carliest ages, and in all parts of the world; and, since attention has been drawn to the subject, scarcely a year now passes without one or more well-attested cases of the fall of aërolites.

Immense Size of Meteorites.

We must not confound the magnitude of the meteorite with that of the aërolite, for the latter is nothing more than a fragment thrown off from the former and falling to the earth, while the main body sweeps onward in its course. The diameter of the Weston meteorite was computed to be 300 feet, and that of a meteorite observed at Windsor, in August, 1783, was calculated to be no less than 3210 feet, or more than threefifths of a mile.

Included in natural electrical phenomena at sea is a round ball the size of a full moon, but much brighter and redder, passing slowly from one cloud to another, sometimes succeeded by a terrific explosion of thunder. It seems strange that ships are not oftener struck by lightning, but, although the bolts sometimes fall in quick succession around a ship, they are generally diverted by the superior attraction of the water.

These flaming electric bolts which add so much to the terror and beauty of the ocean are different in cause from the brilliant meteors so often seen on land. Meteors or shooting stars may be occasionally seen on any clear night, but it is about the middle of August and November that the display is most brilliant. Sometimes meteoric showers of several hours' duration are witnessed. Meteors are supposed to be small bodies revolving around the sun, like the planets, in orbits which cross that of the carth. When the earth in its annual revolution arrives sufficiently near, under the influence of its attraction they approach it with great velocity, and on entering the atmosphere of the earth they take fire. In most

THE GREAT METEOR SEEN AT HURWORTH.

cases they are consumed before reaching the earth, and thus disappear in the sky. Sometimes, however, when the mass is large, a loud explosion takes place, and fragments from a few pounds to a ton in weight fall to the ground. In one case a meteoric stone nearly ten tons in weight was found in France. Such wanderers from far distant space or from other worlds are made up of materials similar to those we find in the earthiron, nickel, quartz, talc, etc. These meteors, when large, are often inexpressibly brilliant. One seen at Hurworth, England, in 1854, lit up the heavens for half an hour with as bright a light as that of the sun, and finally burst with a thunderous explosion heard for many miles.